


"Knowledge or death."

by zeejayblue



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Keith/Lance (Voltron) Angst, Keith/Lance (Voltron) Fluff, Love Confessions, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), it's when keith is about to leave for the BoM mission, loosely based off of s4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-25
Updated: 2017-10-25
Packaged: 2019-01-22 18:29:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12488112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zeejayblue/pseuds/zeejayblue
Summary: Keith is about to leave for the mission with the Blade of Marmora, but something - or in this case, someone - stops him.





	"Knowledge or death."

            “Please don’t go,” Lance spoke up as he stepped forward from all the others, breaking the somber silence that followed Keith’s announcement of his departure. Keith looked to his feet and said nothing. The room was silent. The other paladins were angry and upset, and Lance felt hurt.

            “Why not?” Keith started, looking up to Lance. He felt a little guilty when he saw the look on Lance’s face. “This could all lead back to Lotor and give us some answers. Besides, the Blade of Marmora _invited_ me to go with them.”

            “So? It was just an invitation, it’s not _required_ for you to go,” Lance reasoned. Keith sighed sharply.

            “I _want_ to go. I could actually _do_ something there. I could actually _help_ them,” Keith responded hotly. Lance felt a pang of pain hit his chest at Keith’s sudden anger. He furrowed his brows, trying his best to hide the fact that he was upset.

            “But you help us plenty!” Lance gawked. Keith simply shrugged in reply. Lance felt his heart drop and felt tears prick at his eyes.

            “Look. I don’t see a reason to stay, Lance. Shiro’s piloting the black lion again,” Keith explained. Lance opened his mouth to speak, but Keith continued.

            “I couldn’t even _lead_ anyway,” Keith finished with a cynical tone. Lance tsked and huffed, hiding his dejection by folding his arms over his chest and faking an angry pout. Keith began to turn around and walk away when no one else spoke. Lance dropped his fake angry posture and cleared his throat.

            “The Blades can survive without you, Keith.” Lance observed firmly, his voice echoing across the room. Keith paused, but didn’t turn around. The room felt tense in the silence that followed.

            “They _can_ , they _will,_ and they _have._ For _thousands_ of years they have,” Lance spat, his voice cracking as his sadness began to surface. Keith nervously shifted his weight on his legs, still saying nothing and still facing away from everyone.

            “ _We_ can’t,” Lance whimpered. The tears he’d been holding back had broken free, and one was sliding down his cheek. Keith finally turned around, and felt guilty and surprised to see Lance cry.

            “ _I_ can’t,” Lance confessed with a sniffle. Keith’s eyes widened and he felt frozen in place.

            “ _We_ need you here. _I_ need you here,” Lance cried.

            “I’m in _love_ with you, you can’t just _leave!_ ” Lance added, now openly crying. Keith felt his heart broke in his chest, but he still said nothing; he had no idea what to say. The only thing in his mind was Lance’s previous sentence. It resonated within Keith’s head, and he felt a jolt of warmth and pain in his chest at the same time.

            “If you’re one-hundred percent set on going, I guess I won’t stop you,” Lance muttered, looking to his feet as he wiped his face and sniffled. Keith felt tears prick at his eyes and he bit his quivering lip.

            “But please-” Lance squeaked, pausing to sob and clear his throat. Keith’s heart broke in his chest all over again. He felt the broken pieces pierce his chest like glass.

            “ _Please,_ at least think about it before you go,” Lance begged. Keith sighed and looked down to his toes again, feeling his chest tighten as a tear slid down his cheek. There was a brief, immense painful silence that followed.

            “Have fun on your _mission,_ ” Lance spat. His bitter words constricted Keith’s throat and filled his chest with guilt.

            Lance began to shoulder past Keith to leave the room. Keith impulsively whipped his arm around behind him, grabbing onto Lance’s bicep and taking a shaky breath. Both of them stood still for a second. Another tear travelled down Keith’s cheek, following the last one, as Lance turned to face him.

            “Are you staying, or going?” Lance questioned, his voice wavering despite trying his best to keep it level. Keith didn’t have anything to say. He couldn’t do anything other than stand there. Tears streamed down his cheeks. He felt so pathetic at this moment. He so badly wanted to go, but he so badly wanted to stay.

            “I… I need to think it over,” Keith replied. Lance’s face softened a little, and he glanced to the screen behind them to reveal a clock.

            “You have an hour,” Coran announced. Lance turned back to Keith, who had released his arm. Keith was standing there with wide, glassy eyes, looking down to the floor. Everyone slowly began to leave, giving Keith sympathetic glances as they passed.

            Once he was completely alone, Keith’s legs wobbled and instead of fighting to stay standing, he let them cave. He collapsed to the floor, sitting on his knees. Keith just let the tears keep flowing, realizing he was powerless to stop them.

            Keith didn’t realize until now that he loved Lance too, which made his decision much harder. He wanted to go on the mission, but now he wanted to stay with team Voltron. Even more so now that Lance confessed his feelings and Keith had recognized his own.

            After Keith was absorbed in his own thoughts for a while, the hour of time he had ran out and Kolivan had called him. Keith stood up, took a deep breath, and sniffled as he pressed the ‘answer’ button.

            “Keith, are you coming with us on the mission?” Kolivan questioned, his voice firm and level. Keith looked down to his Blades uniform, and felt a little pang of regret when he saw it. He sighed shakily and looked up to Kolivan.

            “No, not this time,” Keith answered. Kolivan seemed displeased.

            “You can’t skip out on every mission, Keith,” Kolivan pointed out warily.

            “I’m sorry… my team, they… they need me here,” Keith added, remembering how Lance had openly confessed his love to him just an hour ago. Kolivan sighed.

            "Understood.” Kolivan affirmed, ending the call. Even though Keith felt more compelled to stay than he did to go, he still felt empty and unsatisfied.

            Keith sat back down on the floor, staring out into the vast view of space. He sighed and glanced to his Blade’s uniform again, his chest tightening.

            Part of him understood why he joined the Blades, but now he can’t help but feel a little regret. It felt nice at first. It felt nice to _belong_ somewhere instead of being a loner or an outsider. But the Blades put the mission above the individual. He felt like just another number. Just another member. If he died, they wouldn’t lose sleep over it. They’d just get up and move on. Like Lance had said, they have done so for thousands of years, and Keith seriously doubted that would ever change.

            “Knowledge or death.” Keith whispered to himself, feeling that familiar feeling of dread and doubt burrowing in his chest. Keith grabbed his Galra knife, rotating it in the light.

            “Knowledge… or death,” Keith echoed, feeling his chest grow tighter. Keith dropped his knife and winced at the loud clatter.

            “Why did I do this?” Keith whispered, looking at his Blades uniform and his Galra knife resting on the floor. Keith ran his hands through his hair, closing his eyes and taking a shaky breath.

            “Keith?” Coran’s voice was heard as a group of footsteps approached the control room. Keith jolted and jumped up, tucking his knife away and smoothing out his clothes before he turned around. Lance, just like last time, stepped forward, away from the rest of the group.

            "So?” Lance pressed. Keith felt his shoulders drop and he looked to Lance.

            “I said no,” Keith replied with a soft smile. Lance’s eyes immediately welled up with tears, causing Keith’s smile to fade, but it came back when Lance pulled him into a tight hug. Lance sobbed into Keith’s shoulder, which broke his heart but warmed it all at once. Soon enough, Keith felt himself start to tear up as well.

            “Thank God, I don’t know what I’d do without you,” Lance cried. Keith closed his eyes to let the tears that were caught in his eyelashes fall to his cheeks. His lip quivered and more tears flowed down his face.

            “I regret it,” Keith mumbled into Lance’s ear. “I regret joining the Blades.” This caused Lance to pull away in surprise, and he frowned when he saw how upset Keith was.

            “They don’t care about _me,_ they don’t care about _anyone;_ they just care about the _mission,_ ” Keith began, wiping tears away with his hand even though more came after to replace the old ones.

            “If I died, they’d just… move on. They wouldn’t _mourn,_ they wouldn’t _cry,_ they wouldn’t lose sleep, they’d just _move on,_ ” Keith continued, his voice cracking.

            “Like you said, they’ve been that way for thousands of years, and they won’t change,” Keith added with a sniffle. The room was silent, and there wasn’t a single dry eye to be seen.

            “I think… I think I’m gonna quit… it’s not good for me to be on a team like that,” Keith admitted. Lance yanked Keith into a tight hug, and Keith lightly chuckled.

            “So you’re staying? With us? For _good?_ ” Lance questioned excitedly, pulling away from Keith while still having his hands on his shoulders.

            “I don’t know how the lion situation will work, but... yeah, I’m staying for good,” Keith assured with a smile.

            “I’m so happy, I could kiss you!” Lance cried, hugging Keith tightly again and spinning in a circle. Keith blushed furiously at the comment, and was kinda sad Lance didn’t do so. So Keith decided to take matters into his own hands.

            “Me too,” Keith replied, and impulsively placed a hand on Lance’s cheek. Lance froze for a brief minute to let his face be consumed by a red blush. Keith yanked him inwards, their lips colliding.

            “Hey, about what you said earlier,” Keith blurted as he pulled away a few seconds later, not giving a very flustered Lance time to process what just happened.

            “I’m in love with you, too,” Keith replied, a smile on his face. Lance smiled back, but he still looked very confused. Keith stepped back to give the flustered boy some air.

            “You’re staying here… with us… _you kissed me_ … _and you love me back,_ ” Lance processed aloud. Keith smiled softly, his face hot.

            “This is the best day I’ve ever had,” Lance chuckled. The other paladins laughed as well. Keith pulled Lance into a hug, kissing his cheek as he wrapped his arms around Lance’s torso.

            “Group hug!” Hunk called. Sure enough, everyone piled in and hugged both Keith and Lance. After a few seconds, the rest of the paladins pulled away.

            “So, you two, huh?” Pidge commented, raising an eyebrow. Both Keith and Lance blushed madly.

            “I called it, _oh_ I _so_ called it,” Pidge laughed. Both boys began to blush harder.

            “Looks like Hunk owes me 30 GAC,” Pidge chided.

            “Hey! The deal was I’d give you 30 GAC if _Keith_ confessed to Lance, not the other way around,” Hunk pointed out exasperatedly.

            “Yeah, but actions speak louder than words, and Keith kissed him first,” Pidge recalled, causing both Lance and Keith to blush so hard, their faces were bright red.

            "Pay up,” Pidge urged, making a ‘gimme’ motion with her right hand while her left one was on her hip. Hunk muttered under his breath, cursing Pidge for finding a loophole as he grabbed his wallet.

            “You’re lucky I have just enough,” Hunk grumbled, dropping the change into Pidge’s small hands as he shoved his wallet back in his pocket.

            “Thank you so much,” Pidge jeered jokingly, playfully punching the yellow paladin’s arm.

            “All jokes aside, we are truly happy to have you here to stay, Keith,” Allura concluded. Everyone muttered their agreements, and Keith smiled humbly.

            “Lance is happier than anyone else is,” Pidge murmured. Lance blushed furiously and Keith smiled fondly at him.

            “I love him, why wouldn’t I be happy that he’s staying?” Lance questioned, blushing. A chorus of ‘aw’s could be heard around the room.

            “Well, I’m glad this had a happy ending,” Shiro sighed happily.

            “It was like watching a soap opera,” Pidge chuckled.

            “We’re glad to have you here to stay, Keith,” Coran beamed.

            “Yeah,” Keith sighed happily as he looked to Lance, who was now his boyfriend.

            “I’m glad I’m staying, too.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> IM SORRY IF THE ENDING IS CHOPPY OR RUSHED I GOT EXCITED AND I COULDN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO MAKE IT SMOOTHER AAAAAA  
> but i love my bbs  
> i hope you liked this


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